Bangor student to school board: 'Queer people exist in the Slater community'

Bangor Area School Board discusses Chick-Fil-A suspensions

Approximately 75 people attended a Bangor Area School Board meeting Tuesday night to discuss the suspension of 10 students for using Twitter during school hours to call out two boys who wore Chick-Fil-A shirts during a gay-straight alliance event.

Approximately 75 people attended a Bangor Area School Board meeting Tuesday night to discuss the suspension of 10 students for using Twitter during school hours to call out two boys who wore Chick-Fil-A shirts during a gay-straight alliance event.

Bangor Area students say district unfairly targeted LGBT students and their supporters

It was standing-room only Tuesday night at the Bangor Area School Board meeting, where students wore rainbow-colored ribbons and tie-dyed shirts and implored board members to support the district's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

Earlier this month, 10 high school students were suspended after they used Twitter during school hours to call out two boys wearing Chick-fil-A shirts during a Gay-Straight Alliance event. It's not clear whether the boys who wore the Chick-fil-A shirts also were punished.

On Tuesday, some students said they felt the district unfairly targeted LGBT students and their supporters. About 75 people attended the meeting, 15 of whom sat in the hallway, listening through the open conference-room doors.

Sophomore Justice McNay, 15, is "flustered, angry and horrified" by the situation. The district isn't standing up for its LGBT student community, McNay said, adding the focus needs to be on fair and equal treatment for all.

"Queer people exist in the Slater community. If you have any doubts, here we are," McNay said, gesturing to about a dozen students who sat in the front rows to show their support.

Parent Jennifer Newland criticized the district's technology policy, which says students are not allowed to use their smartphones during school hours.

The suspended students felt the T-shirts were offensive because of widely publicized comments...

Bangor Area High School suspended a group of students for using Twitter during school hours to call out two students wearing Chick-fil-A shirts during a Gay-Straight Alliance event, parents and students said.

The suspended students felt the T-shirts were offensive because of widely publicized comments...

(Christina Tatu)

"Teachers are consistently on their phones while they should be teaching, or ask students to use their phones for school work and research, or after classwork is complete they are given permission to use their phones," Newland said.

As for the suspensions, the Chick-fil-A shirts the two boys wore are not the root of the problem, Newland said.

"It is the behavior of hatred and bullying that should be the real focus, not just from these [two] students, but the students who teased those in support of the LGBT community all week," she said, referring to the Gay-Straight Alliance's weeklong event encouraging students to wear a different colored shirt each day in support of a different cause.

Alicia Learn, parent of one of the boys who wore a Chick-Fil-A shirt, said she didn't know her son was going to wear the shirt but supports his decision. She said the diversity event should have been sponsored by the district, a neutral authority, instead of the Gay-Straight Alliance.

The event ended May 1 with students encouraged to wear rainbow shirts in support of LGBT rights.

District Superintendent Frank DeFelice has said the students were suspended for bullying and using smartphones during school hours.

He also took issue with the content of the tweets, saying in a prepared statement earlier this month the school board and staff respect freedom of speech but will not support "lewd, obscene, vulgar or profane" expression.

DeFelice mostly kept his head down as McNay and Newland spoke, occasionally glancing at them.

Following the comments, sophomore Rowan Gallucci, 16, said she thought students sent a message.

"I think it made a huge impression because a lot of people showed up for this. You could sort of see [the school board] freak out at first," she said. "They say we have freedom of speech, but when certain people use it they get in trouble."

Gallucci, who wore a black shirt with a rainbow-striped equal sign on the front, said her friends have been repeatedly taunted by their peers and slurs have been hurled at them.

Her mother, Christine Raisner, said the school needs to address the bullying.

"They need to hold everyone accountable. Everyone knows the athletes and straight-A students get preference and get away with things," Raisner said.

On May 1, students started firing off on Twitter after seeing two boys wearing Chick-fil-A T-shirts during that morning's televised announcements, the same day the Gay-Straight Alliance encouraged students to wear rainbow-colored shirts.

The suspended students felt the Chick-fil-A shirts were offensive because of widely publicized comments the fast food company's president and CEO Dan Cathy made in 2012 against gay marriage.

District officials saw the tweets against the two students as bullying.

The ACLU of Pennsylvania has been investigating the incident. On Tuesday, Mary Catherine Roper, deputy legal director of the organization, said the ACLU has not yet decided whether to take any action.

School directors will hold a public hearing on an updated bullying and cyberbullying policy at a future meeting. They said the proposal has been in the works since before the suspensions.